Norwegian soprano Mari Eriksmoen opened the 2021/22 season singing Marzelline (Fidelio) at Paris’s Opéra Comique conducted by Raphaël Pichon, and Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) at Theater Basel. Her other engagements in the 2021/22 season have included concert performances of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen with Stefan Gottfried and Concentus Musicus Wien at Vienna’s Musikverein, Mademoiselle Silberklang (Der Schauspieldirektor) with Ed Gardner and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, and Gerda (Hans Abrahamsen’s The Snow Queen) with Kent Nagano and the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. Other engagements have included Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem with the Munich Philharmonic and Paavo Järvi, and on tour with Ensemble Pygmalion and Raphaël Pichon. In summer 2021 she appeared in recital at the Edinburgh International Festival with Daniel Heide, and at the Tivoli Festival with Malcolm Martineau.
Mari Eriksmoen received widespread acclaim for her role debut as Debussy’s Mélisande (Pelléas et Mélisande) in the complex, intense staging by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Damien Jalet and Marina Abramović for Opera Vlaanderen, winning acclaim from Forum Opéra for her ‘voice like crystal’ and portrayal of the ‘hypnotizing fragility of this heroine’. She has reprised the role in performances of this production at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, and, in March 2022, in Willy Decker’s production at Teatro de la Maestranza, Seville.
Mari Eriksmoen studied at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, the Paris Conservatoire and the Royal Danish Academy of Opera in Copenhagen. Her professional career was launched immediately after she completed her studies in 2010, when she was invited to make her debut as Zerbinetta in Harry Kupfer’s new staging of Ariadne auf Naxos at the Theater an der Wien, conducted by Bertrand de Billy.
